Cameras at schools — just in time

Mayor de Blasio signed into law a new city-run speed camera program Tuesday, just in time for children to head back to school Wednesday.

“We have for weeks been concerned as public servants and as parents about our children’s safety on the first day of school,” de Blasio said at the City Hall bill signing.

The state law that allowed the city to use cameras to catch drivers going more than 10 miles above the speed limit on streets adjacent to schools lapsed in July. While an extension had passed in the state Assembly, it languished in the Republican-led Senate — which had no plans to return to pass the bill before the start of the school year.

For years, the city had maintained it could not set up a speed camera program on its own. But last month, de Blasio, Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Gov. Cuomo said they’d found a way — in part through an emergency executive order that would give the city access to state Department of Motor Vehicle records it needs to track down the owners of vehicles caught speeding.

Hizzoner and others gave the credit for the development to safe streets advocates — many of whom lost loved ones and have fought for the return of the cameras, which Department of Transportation data show reduce fatalities by 60%.